Police were questioning a man last night after the wife of retired Texan millionaire was murdered outside their home on an affluent Cotswolds residential estate.

The woman, named locally as Lucy Landry, 38, was found by neighbours with stab wounds outside the couple's home in Worcestershire on Monday night. She was taken to hospital, where she was ­pronounced dead.

Mrs Landry lived with her husband, Harold, their seven-year-old daughter, Harriet, and Mrs Landry's 14-year-old son, James, from a previous marriage. The children are believed to have been in the family home at the time of the incident.

A male neighbour was reported to have left his home earlier on Monday night after hearing cries and found Mrs Landry, lying in a hedge beside her driveway, having lost blood from a number of wounds.

West Mercia police said officers were called to the estate in Besford, near Pershore, at 11.45pm. A spokesman said a woman was taken by ambulance to the A&E department of Worcestershire Royal hospital, but was later pronounced dead.

He added that a man was arrested nearby shortly after on suspicion of murder and was helping police with enquiries.

Rachel Clarke, a neighbour of the Landrys', said: "Lucy was a beautiful woman who had an encyclopaedic knowledge of classical music, an amazing musician. She was loved by everyone. It is a tragedy, she was only 38 years old."

Mrs Landry was said to have banged on the window of another neighbour, Stephen Kennedy, who was woken up by screaming and found her when he went outside. "A knife had gone into her side several times and the handle was no longer visible," said Clarke.

Harold Landry, in his 60s and known to friends as "H", is believed to have made his fortune in oil and engineering and has four children in the US. The couple were reported to have met on the internet and had been married for 10 years but were going through a divorce.

After moving to London in early 2000 to join his wife, who was originally from Wales, Mr Landry reportedly bought a five-bedroom three-storey Cotswold stone house to be their home.

The house, one of 32 on the 35-acre estate, is built around a Tudor mansion.